I get ask all the time… “What is the cheapest and easiest way to make a garden bed?” The answer is a simple 3 foot wide earth bed. Mulching with cardboard can be improved by totally saturating the cardboard. Sounds simple but it is often done partially or overlooked.
How to Easily & Organically Prepare Your Garden Earth Beds For Winter: Manure Now 4 Spring Planting! https://youtu.be/mC5cFg1xTX8
How to Dig Your First Earth Bed Vegetable Garden & A Cherry Tomato Hedge: All the Steps in Detail! https://youtu.be/z73PfhVlNjw
Join this channel to get access to Perk Memberships which focus on providing small live garden mentoring Q & A sessions, classes, and member influenced videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCptL6_qMImyW_yZwiMjQdpg/jo
Earn 15% and become a TRG Affiliate for our seed & garden shop. Some people are using it for their social media followings and some people are using it for a fund raiser for schools and sport teams.
You can use this link to our shop and click the MORE tab on the green bar and select TRG Affiliate Program https://www.therustedgarden.com/
Or use this to go directly to our TRG Affiliate Program sign up https://the-rusted-garden.goaffpro.com/create-account
Thanks so much for your support! Cheers & Thanks, Gary!
Visit The Rusted Garden Seed & Garden Shop:
https://www.therustedgarden.com/ – Seeds, Starting Supplies, Neem Oil, Peppermint & Other Oils, Calcium Nitrate & More.
My Books:
The Modern Homestead Garden: Growing Self-Sufficiency in Any Size Backyard
Available Now https://amzn.to/40rfkIb
Growing An Edible Landscape: How to Transform Your Outdoor Space Into a Food Garden
Available November 2023 https://amzn.to/41tfno2
I now have an Amazon Influencer’s Storefront. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Just use my… The Rusted Garden Amazon Influencer’s Storefront link at https://www.amazon.com/shop/garypilarchiktherustedgarden anytime you shop.
I put the products I use and discuss, in videos, there and have gardening products set up by categories. Such as Grow Lights, Fertilizers, Pest Control, and such.
My New Book:
The Modern Homestead Garden: Growing Self-Sufficiency in Any Size Backyard.
An Autographed Copy of my book is at my seed and garden shop: https://www.therustedgarden.com/search?type=product&q=book
My book is also available on Amazon… Thanks 4 the Support!
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Homestead-Garden-Self-sufficiency-Backyard/dp/0760368171/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=The+modern+homestead+garden&qid=1595425421&sr=8-3
Products I Use and Recommend. I have an affiliation with them:
GreenStalk Vertical Gardening Towers
Use the Discount Code THERUSTEDGARDEN on GreenStalk ‘Vertical Tier Systems’. Use this link and enter my code for the discount http://store.greenstalkgarden.com/?afmc=therustedgarden or this short link http://lddy.no/4eal
Bentley Seed Company https://bentleyseeds.com
AgroThrive Organic Bio-Fertilizers
Use my affiliate link and my code TRG10 to save 10% on your first order: https://agrothrive.com/?ref=M5o6fjdAruq_S
Metal Raised Beds
Check out all the metal bed design & colors (dozens) at Vegega. Here is my affiliate link: https://www.vegega.com/?ref=le64f3gm30 There is often free shipping and discounts. I have a discount code that is always 10% off, use the code TRG. However, it does NOT stack when current sales are active and equal to or above 10% on the site
HoseLink Retractable Hose Reels & other garden care products.
Promotions will vary and I don’t have a code. https://glnk.io/9wqr/therustedgarden
Follow me on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/therustedgarden/
My Vegetable Gardening Podcasts:
are under Gardening Coast2Coast Podcasts
https://gardeningcoast2coast.net/
Join me in my Private FB Group: The Rusted Garden Homestead: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Therustedgardenhomestead
Contact Me at therustedgardenmerch@gmail.com for questions or if you are interested in collaborations, affiliations or advertising.
21 Comments
Nice demonstration. Thanks for sharing
The cardboard may not be a fertilizer but it really improves the soil structure in my rocky, clay soil. Like he said the worms love it, also airiating and loosening the soil
I usually don't wet it down or not that well. No wonder it would curl up and become a tripping hazard! Thanks!
Check your municiple yard for free bark mulch. That's how I got mine. I don't have a truck, so I made multiple trips in my suv with buckets, but it was free!
From my experience with lasagna gardening over the past 30 years, you need to cover all the splits & holes in the cardboard. Weeds, especially quack grass comes up through any sliver of light. I'm amazed at how many people still don't know this labor-saving, resourceful, recycling method!
Great video!
👍🏿
We have started a compost pile and a lot of cardboard goes there. Then what you just did works excellent too. Although we try to have removed all the packaging tape and other plastics on the cardboard before we place it down or try to compost it!
Always helpful, thank you.
I started using cardboard and mulch based on your recommendation last year and I did not pull a single weed. And I had great compost to start this year's garden. I repeated the process this year.
Please visit The Rusted Garden Seed & Garden Shop (My Shop) for your fabric pots, fall & spring seeds, seed starting supplies, peppermint oil, neem oil, TRG merchandise, and more at http://www.therustedgarden.com
Plus support The Rusted Garden by subscribing and using my Amazon Store Front link
when shopping for anything on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/shop/garypilarchiktherustedgarden
As an Amazon Associate I earn from any qualified purchases, not just items I link.
You can also find items I use or discuss in videos, by checking out my Amazon Storefront for cameras, fertilizer, pest management, shade cloth, seed starting supplies, books and more!
Earn 15% by becoming a Rusted Garden Seed & Garden Shop Affiliate. Some people are using it for their social media followings and some people are using it for a fund raiser for schools and sport teams. To sign up… use this link to our shop and click the MORE tab on the green bar and select TRG Affiliate Program https://www.therustedgarden.com/
Or use this link to go directly to our TRG Affiliate Program sign up https://the-rusted-garden.goaffpro.com/create-account
The Rusted Garden 'Scan & Grow' Seed Collection (My Seed and Garden Shop) Just scan the QR code and watch a planting video:
https://www.therustedgarden.com/search?type=product&q=qr
This is my new favorit video. I was thinking about using the thick black plastic covered with rocks. This sounds much better and less expensive to boot.
Makes Perfect Sense how can do this 3 Foot rows then long has you can naf one drip irrigation hose in the middle or two…I personally don't have Hoses but I do Hand water Ton load of plants…
Similar to my garden.
2ft paths are perfect for me. My 2 tire wheelbarrows are 23" wide but I use my one tire barrow that's 18" because it's easier to take sharp turns. I'm too cheap for placing mulch on top the cardboard. Just some flat rocks and before I water my plants i spray the cardboard down, using the hot water from the hose I leave out in the sun.
For me the best place to get cardboard is furniture stores. Large boxes that can be cut to fit the space you need to cover.
On a related topic, kinda, I came up way short on leaf mould top mulch due to creating some new grower's group beds. I recently considered mixing 1/2 leaves & 1/2 shredded cardboard with grass clippings &/or clean urine for Nitrogen decomp shot in a caged pile…& letting it sit for a year.
Anybody tried something like this?
I'm usually a purist & go straight leaf mould for the browns in my top mulch….But, I've got a stock pile of card board now.
Row orientation to the sun?
While watching the car-board part wondering if in spring you did the same on top of mounds and to plant just cut holes to plant in starts?
… before laying the cardboard down, it helps if you first moisten the ground so that it is easier to saturate the cardboard …
Hi Gary, I have a issue in killer the plant in my vegetable bed, if i use the cardboard if it kills and of course the same plant comes back healthier. Can you suggest some ideas how to kill those plants without chemicals.
Big old wooden drawers make for quick beds too. I see dressers waiting for trash pick up from time to time and just stop and take the drawers.
Thank you Gary great tip. Why didn’t I think of that? 😄
I’ve been doing this for several years and it works great. I cut off the clean pizza box tops and use them. I also shred paper (junk mail etc.) and lightweight cardboard and mulch closely around my plants with it. 👍🏼